7 ms·

Firefox on Android is NOT amazing. For MANY YEARS the user agent included the exact model of your phone. They seem to be incompetent. (Edit: this is a bit harsh

Firefox on Android is NOT amazing. For MANY YEARS the user agent included the exact model of your phone. They seem to be incompetent. (Edit: this is a bit harsh, and to clarify, directed at the company and not any specific people in their employ.) Exactly what Google wants -- plausible deniability when it comes to monopoly, but an awful alternative.

phartenfeller 2y ago
Nope, for me it includes the Android version but no device model information.
- smolder 2y ago
  They fixed it after the issue was present for MANY YEARS, exactly as stated.
  - Aachen 2y ago
    The other day I found out my mobile user agent string also included the kernel build version. Way to see which, if any, exploit would be effective for the device's patch level. Thankfully it has a spoof option so I now use that to send a correct, but slightly stripped, UA string I keep thinking I should switch to Firefox but the current ux is just so comfortable
  - cuu508 2y ago
    OK, so it was NOT amazing for MANY YEARS, but now it is ;-)
bu7jjuj 2y ago
Firefox on android can run ublock origin. The internet is unusable on mobile otherwise. But go on and let google continue to 'wow'you with their amazing ad tech. Firefox on android IS AMAZING.
- sunaookami 2y ago
  No it's not. It's slow and buggy. You can also use an adblocking DNS like AdGuard and have adblocking system-wide. Yes I know uBlock blocks a bit better but DNS-blocking suffices. Also, there are other browsers with integrated adblockers based on Chromium.
  - erinaceousjones 2y ago
    Not ever had Firefox for android be slow and buggy for myself! I've been using it in place of chrome on my phone for a good year. Honestly everyone keeps talking about how FF is "slow and buggy" and it has NEVER given me issue :/ why is my subjective experience so different to your subjective experience? Meanwhile chrome/chromium is the one which is most likely to cause me GPU driver crashes, but that's because I use it for fun VR and "let's see how big I can make textures" experiments. Generally it manages a higher frame rate than FF in that context with stability as tradeoff.
    - pohuing 2y ago
      There could just be a difference in hardware. I'm a Firefox user but there is a noticeable difference, just not one that matters much on a top tier soc
      - jakub_g 2y ago
        Loading JS heavy pages like Twitter on Firefox Android is way slower than Chromium based. Very noticeable on 2019 hardware, less so but still on 2022 hardware.
        erinaceousjones 2y ago
        Ah, fair point. I'm on a pixel 6, so I have a privileged perspective that like 90% of smartphone browser users don't have because fairly new and fast SoC with a good amount of memory. I hadn't considered how much a difference that makes, because conceptually in my head "it's just webpages!" like we're still in the early 2000's
vorticalbox 2y ago
There is also this issue To address this, we will measure Telemetry Coverage, which is the percentage of all Firefox users who report telemetry. The Telemetry Coverage measurement will sample a portion of all Firefox clients and report whether telemetry is enabled. This measurement will not include a client identifier and will not be associated with our standard telemetry. Even if you turn telemetry off it will still call home https://blog.mozilla.org/data/2018/08/20/effectively-measuring-search-in-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/data/2018/08/20/effectively-measuri...
Ylpertnodi 2y ago
>...directed at the company and not any specific people in their employ. They are the same thing, until you get to the upper levels, that own the place ie 'take full responsibility'. We are fa-mily. Until the shit hits the fan.

phartenfeller 2y ago

Nope, for me it includes the Android version but no device model information.

smolder 2y ago
They fixed it after the issue was present for MANY YEARS, exactly as stated.
- Aachen 2y ago
  The other day I found out my mobile user agent string also included the kernel build version. Way to see which, if any, exploit would be effective for the device's patch level. Thankfully it has a spoof option so I now use that to send a correct, but slightly stripped, UA string I keep thinking I should switch to Firefox but the current ux is just so comfortable
- cuu508 2y ago
  OK, so it was NOT amazing for MANY YEARS, but now it is ;-)

bu7jjuj 2y ago

Firefox on android can run ublock origin. The internet is unusable on mobile otherwise. But go on and let google continue to 'wow'you with their amazing ad tech. Firefox on android IS AMAZING.

sunaookami 2y ago
No it's not. It's slow and buggy. You can also use an adblocking DNS like AdGuard and have adblocking system-wide. Yes I know uBlock blocks a bit better but DNS-blocking suffices. Also, there are other browsers with integrated adblockers based on Chromium.
- erinaceousjones 2y ago
  Not ever had Firefox for android be slow and buggy for myself! I've been using it in place of chrome on my phone for a good year. Honestly everyone keeps talking about how FF is "slow and buggy" and it has NEVER given me issue :/ why is my subjective experience so different to your subjective experience? Meanwhile chrome/chromium is the one which is most likely to cause me GPU driver crashes, but that's because I use it for fun VR and "let's see how big I can make textures" experiments. Generally it manages a higher frame rate than FF in that context with stability as tradeoff.
  - pohuing 2y ago
    There could just be a difference in hardware. I'm a Firefox user but there is a noticeable difference, just not one that matters much on a top tier soc
    - jakub_g 2y ago
      Loading JS heavy pages like Twitter on Firefox Android is way slower than Chromium based. Very noticeable on 2019 hardware, less so but still on 2022 hardware.
      - erinaceousjones 2y ago
        Ah, fair point. I'm on a pixel 6, so I have a privileged perspective that like 90% of smartphone browser users don't have because fairly new and fast SoC with a good amount of memory. I hadn't considered how much a difference that makes, because conceptually in my head "it's just webpages!" like we're still in the early 2000's

vorticalbox 2y ago

There is also this issue To address this, we will measure Telemetry Coverage, which is the percentage of all Firefox users who report telemetry. The Telemetry Coverage measurement will sample a portion of all Firefox clients and report whether telemetry is enabled. This measurement will not include a client identifier and will not be associated with our standard telemetry. Even if you turn telemetry off it will still call home https://blog.mozilla.org/data/2018/08/20/effectively-measuring-search-in-firefox/ https://blog.mozilla.org/data/2018/08/20/effectively-measuri...

Ylpertnodi 2y ago

>...directed at the company and not any specific people in their employ. They are the same thing, until you get to the upper levels, that own the place ie 'take full responsibility'. We are fa-mily. Until the shit hits the fan.